Education Briefs

Education Briefs

The average Ohio teacher made $56,715 in 2012, while Ohio Education Association union officers and staff made an average of $100,553. Thus, average union employees made $43,838 more than the average teacher they represent, while union membership declined by 7%. Statistics are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (MediaTrackers.org, 7-15-13)

In Chicago, where public schools are $1 billion in the red, students won’t benefit from the budget increase of almost 10% for the 2013-14 school year. Rather, “classroom spending” will decrease by $68 million because the district must make a $405 million union employee pension plan payment and fund the raise won by teachers in the 2012 strike. No money is available from taxpayers because the maximum property tax percentage has been reached. Moody’s again downgraded the district’s credit rating, making borrowing problematic. (EAGNews.org, 7-25-13)

Since the Dept. of Education “Kids Zone” student site offered a “quote of the day” from Chairman Mao Zedong, the feature has disappeared. Mao’s quote stated: “Our attitude towards ourselves should be ‘to be satiable in learning’ and towards others ‘to be tireless in teaching.’” Not only was the quote from a merciless Communist dictator, it used the word “satiable” instead of the correct “insatiable,” which rendered the quote incoherent. Two sentences prior in Mao’s text states, “Whoever refuses to study these problems seriously and carefully is no Marxist.” (FrontPageMagazine.com, 3-25-13)

71% of Americans recently surveyed by Gallup said the Founding Fathers would not like America today. Respondents were asked, “Overall, do you think the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be pleased or disappointed by the way the United States has turned out?” By political persuasion, 83% of conservatives, 54% of liberals, and 68% of moderates answered that America today is not as envisioned. In 2001, 58% of those surveyed said that the founders would not be pleased. (The Washington Times, 7-5-13)